The new book is well underway.  A new book ?!

The California Garden at The Huntington Botanic Garden

The Summer-Dry Garden (Timber Press 2019) will update and replace Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Area, the award winning book published by East Bay Municipal Water Utility Distrct (EBMUD), which is now out of print.

Along with my co-author and writer, Nora Harlow, we are expanding the definition of the West’s summer-dry region to include Baja to BC (British Columbia), a huge region with the common factor of dry summers.  That may be ten weeks in Seattle or ten months in San Diego, but all Pacific Coast climates have dry summers.  This is not drought, it is normal.

Isoplexis canariensis Canary Island Foxglove on Mediterranean Hill in San Francisco Botanical Garden

Gardeners need information that targets their own region and too many garden books are written for East Coast gardeners where summers seem tropical when compared to the West.  The aesthetic is entirely different.

I have been visiting gardens from Seattle to San Diego and am delighted at the range of gardens that use water wisely and still seem full of lush vegetation.  It is my job, as a photographer, to show success so the others may learn.

Golden Smoke Bush in Albers Vista Garden, Bremerton, Washington

The book its still more than a year away from publication but I will be publishing some teasers in the Summer-Dry section of Living Books.